India captain Shubman Gill has expressed his concerns around the increasing injury concerns which severely dented the team’s opportunity to put out a full-strength squad in England. With Hardik Pandya already missing the ODIs, India hoped to test Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana, but both end up missing the series with different injuries.
Right through the three-match ODI series that India lost, they missed players at critical junctures. Before the series began, Rana was ruled out. And from the squad that was originally named, even all-rounder Nitish ended up missing the series with injury. Then in the middle of the series, Washington Sundar picked up an injury and then KL Rahul and Bumrah too ended up missing a game each because of illness and knee injury. And Gill said it is a huge concern.
“Yes, absolutely. If you look at the squad the first score we announced, out of that, at least 5 players didn’t play this match. So, one player is injured, you have to play a different combination. Two players (missing), a different combination. I think after every match, if a player is missing, we are missing a few tricks. If you look at the World Cup, we have played 11 matches in a row, and the players are not able to finish 2-3 matches here. We are forced to play a different combination, which we don’t think we will have to play. So, looking at all that, it is a little worrying,” Gill said.
With Bumrah missing the final ODI, India ended up taking the field with only five bowling options and paid the price as except for Axar, all the seamers ended up having an off-day. Gill then elaborated what sort of place it put him as a captain.“One day before the match, if you get to know that a player is injured, then it is almost like you want to take a chance. If a player is 80% fit, you play with 5 bowlers, and if they come out with five bowlers, who will you play with? So, all those things are difficult to think about,” he said.
Speaking of the series outcome, Gill said they were planning to try different combinations, but admitted they were not able to overcome the crunch moments. “I think we have had a pretty decent series in both the matches that we have lost. We were there in the game for the majority of it. It almost feels like we are in the game for about 80% of the game. And then the crunch moments, the moments that dictate the game, that’s where we are missing the break. And in those moments, that’s where inexperienced players obviously go (missing). If you have an experienced bowling group, batting group, that helps you a lot. And I think we need to get a little bit smarter in assessing the conditions,” he said.
